Technology finally pins suspect

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio -- For more than 17 years, his mere presence ate away at Sgt. Don Barton and detective Jack Clark.

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio -- For more than 17 years, his mere presence ate away at Sgt. Don Barton and detective Jack Clark.

When James J. Hollis wasn't in prison -- he is a career criminal -- he was walking the streets, an all-too-free reminder of the case the police officers couldn't crack.

There, they thought, was a man who had something to do with a horrific crime of the type rarely visited upon a small town like Circleville.

The officers were among those who found the body of 83-year-old Mary F. Cook in the bedroom of her neat-as-a-pin house on July 21, 1990.

The widow with a sunny disposition, a daily visitor to Lindsey's Bakery for doughnuts, had been beaten and raped. She had been strangled, and a bite mark was found on her breast.

Hollis, who as a teenager toiled at odd jobs for Mrs. Cook, was a suspect from Day One. But, as years passed and paperwork piled up, police couldn't pin it on him.

Investigators kept plugging away, however, resubmitting evidence for DNA testing in 2005, hoping for a match amid improving technology. In September, the officers had a hit, a match in a criminal DNA database that put the ex-convict at the crime scene.

Their regular calls to Florida to talk to the victim's granddaughter, Kristin Cook, always were met with the question: "Did you get him yet?"

On Wednesday, Clark and Barton finally got him.

They picked up their warrant and found Hollis at his mother's Circleville home.

"There must be a mix-up," Hollis said as he was led away in cuffs.

Hollis, 37, was charged with complicity to murder and complicity to rape for assisting a "John Doe" who remains at large in killing and assaulting Mrs. Cook.

Circleville Police Chief Wayne Gray Jr. said investigators are building a case for a second arrest in the slaying.

With Hollis in jail on a $3 million bond, Barton, with 32 years on the force, and Clark, with 28 years, said they finally can begin to think about retirement.

"It's been a hard case, but we stuck with it," Barton said.

Acknowledging that the unsolved case long caused turmoil in Circleville, Clark said: "Sometimes, you have to wait it out. We figured technology would get us there someday."

Wearing a red ribbon in memory of "Nana," Kristin Cook was in court yesterday to see Hollis.

Her father, Blenn Cook, died at age 80 in 2005, his decade-old offer of a $25,000 reward for an arrest in his mother's death unclaimed.

"Technology does not move at the pace we like. We knew we had all the information that could be gathered. It was just waiting for technology to catch up," Ms. Cook said.

"It has been very difficult," the 47-year-old said. "This is the beginning of the end for the family."

Clark said the arrest may mark another end, as well. "This will make retirement a lot easier," he said.

Gray, a rookie patrolman when Cook was killed, fended off talk of retirement.

There's more work to be done, he said. There's a killer at large and another arrest to be made.

rludlow@dispatch.com

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